The Light Shines in the Darkness

Today is Monday, and the first thing I will do when I get to work is go through the prayer requests. Over the 10 years that I have worked in a church, our prayer team has prayed for thousands of requests. Every request is important because each one is a burden being carried by someone who no longer wishes to carry it alone.

We have a trustworthy group of prayer warriors who are committed to keep these requests confidential between God, themselves and the person who submitted the request. We are honored to be trusted with these deeply personal requests and have been blessed by seeing God do some pretty amazing things. Women who “can’t have children” have conceived and given birth. Children have been adopted. Addictions have been broken. Jobs have been obtained. Patients who were given no hope have lived beyond the doctor’s prognosis. Doctors have contributed unexplained healing to prayer. Loved ones who have been covered in prayer sometimes for many years, have given their lives to Christ. God has been praised for many, many prayers that were answered in the way we desired.

However, not every prayer we have prayed has been answered in the way we have asked. Though our hearts break as we pray along with those who live with chronic physical pain, suffer mental anguish, deal with hardships and experience tragedy, God doesn’t always choose to end the struggle.

The unbelieving world sometimes looks at our “unanswered prayers” and our tragedies and asks us “Where is this God you talk about?” or “If there is a God, why does he let these terrible things happen?” Even Christians sometimes have a hard time understanding how God can allow a child to have cancer, a Godly man to die unexpectedly, parents of young children to die in a car crash, hurricanes to destroy homes or shooters to go on rampages that take lives.

I have seen many arguments on social media concerning these matters. I have seen many explanations that make sense to me but no sense at all to others. However, I’m not even going to begin to explain what I believe the “why” to these situations are.

What I do know and believe is that God is our Creator. He loved the world so much that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus is Lord and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is God; I am not. God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours. In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

In John 17, as Jesus prepared for his death on the cross to pay the price for our sin, he prayed to the Father. He prayed not only for those who belonged to him but for his future followers as well. In verse 15, he prayed, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”

In Acts chapters 6 and 7, Stephen was arrested and stoned for his faith in Jesus. God didn’t stop the people from throwing the stones, but he did allow Stephen to see the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

God doesn’t always remove our struggles or suffering, but he promises to go through it with us. Over and over, I have witnessed other Christians holding on to God through their difficulties and testifying to the fact that he is giving them strength, comfort and peace to endure. His supernatural power provides what we need while we wait for the day that we will see complete healing, an end to suffering and an end to sorrow.

We believe Jesus words in John 16:33 when he says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” We believe John’s word’s in John 1:5 (NLT) that say, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” We take seriously the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 when he tells us, “You are the light of the world” and commands us to “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

It is not always clear to us why God allows bad things to happen, but those of us who belong to him know that he will always be with us, that his Holy Spirit dwells in us to bring us strength, comfort and peace and that we have hope that one day, we will live with him, eternally in heaven where there will be no evil and no more pain, suffering or tears. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

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